1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a fee supported data base system for community use.
2. The Prior Art
The primary prior art is U.S. Pat. No. 5,359,508, which describes a new type of online data base system. The system disclosed in this patent provides an economic solution to two critical problems of online data bases: what answers (data) to collect and how to collect them. The solution of the invention is to estimate the reward for supplying a given answer, and then report this reward to users who might be in a position to supply the answer. The estimate is based on how many people request the answer. Basically, the system tells users, "Hey, enter this answer and I project you will make x amount of money." Then, if the answer is supplied and used, those who used it are charged and the supplier is paid. This sequence can be viewed as a sort of economic feedback loop, and the system can be viewed as an economy where the products are answers. The point is not to summarize the original patent, but to say that it is a pioneer type patent that takes a sharp departure from previous approaches to data base system design.
The main goal of this patent was to describe the basic loop of this answer economy. The loop can be built upon. CIP 1 added new matter in three areas. First, it described a new feature for displaying the pay-off estimates of certain kinds of answers. Second, it described the collection of more information about the demand for an answer, particularly price information. Third, it described a form of the invention in which the system does not actually collect and output answers but collects and outputs information about the answers, including reference information telling where the answers can be found.
CIP 2 added more new matter, the most important being an interface and data storage procedure that lets people "talk" to the system in natural language.
CIP 3 added new matter including procedures for entering and displaying questions and answers, for registering demand for answers, and for granting property rights to users.
CIP 3 was also a rewrite of CIP 2 in order make the reading easier and better explain how the system could be adapted to collect and sell a wide variety of answers. In the rewrite several terms were changed in the interest of clarifying concepts. For example, in CIP 2 the term data request was often used for question. And the term data was often used for answer. CIP 3 kept more to the natural terms, question and answer. While the shift is semantic, rather than essential, there are reasons for avoiding the term data. Thinking about questions and answers is more natural than thinking about data-requests and data. We know a lot about questions and answers. We know that most questions are ambiguous. We know that some answers are permanent and some are not. We know that credibility counts. We know that people make mistakes when asking questions and giving answers. We know that many questions and answers are improvable. We know that the meaning of questions is subject to interpretation. We know that certain answers are mere suggestions while others are nearly certain facts. We know a lot more than this.
It's not a surprise that we know these things because questions and answers are what we use to communicate with each other and find out about the world. And so a system that lets us use these naturally can be a boon. That is what the invention is designed to do; it is an economic system that provides answers in response to questions. Thus, the change in terminology clarifies things and signifies a break from traditional data base systems which, of course, emphasize data.
While all the key methods and functions of the U.S. Pat. No. 5,359,508, CIP 1 and CIP 2 remain in CIP3, large parts of the CIP 2 are copied in an appendix, for legal reasons of maintaining disclosure continuity for priority purposes. Some of the "additional functions" described in CIP 2 are superseded by functions in CIP 3. Most all remain but are improved or elaborated on.
CIP 4, takes up where CIP 3 left off, mainly by continuing to describe how the system can handle natural language.
This application, CIP 5, takes up where CIP 4 left off, adding new material about how the system can handle natural language (Chapter 26). It adds material concerning quality control (Chapter 13), translation (Chapters 15 and 27) and the pay-off meter (Chapters 9 and 25).
Book Form, With Missing Chapters
This application is written in the form of three books. In order to adapt the invention to handle a wide variety of questions and answers, numerous features can be added to the basic system. These are conveniently explained in chapters.
Book I concerns the basic system and features that can be added to it. Book II concerns adapting the basic system to handle natural language questions and answers. The books are incomplete though. Many chapters are left unwritten. Others that are written can be expanded. Thus, while a table of contents is given, the reader will find several chapters missing.
Future continuing applications are planned that will expand both Books I and II. It should be noted that in many instances in Book I, we say things like, "as will be seen in Book II," or "this topic will be taken up in Book II." Often, those parts of Book II have yet to be written or expanded. We make these statements in this application because we intend to fill in those parts in a future application.
Book III concerns adapting the system to handle a variety of jobs.